Archive for the ‘Human Resources Management’ Category

The 2012 Policies and Benefits Survey Reveals an Increase in Company Wellness Initiatives

Tuesday, May 21st, 2013

In today’s video blog, CAI’s Director of HR Services, Molly Hegeman, shares several interesting findings from CAI’s 2012 Policies and Benefits Survey. More than 260 employers from across North Carolina participated in the survey conducted last year.

Molly reports that nearly 50 percent of the participating companies have wellness strategies in place at their workplace. Some of the common components employers are including in their wellness programs include: health risk assessments, flu shots, and diet and educational counseling.

Molly says the survey also revealed that NC employers are focusing on their work environments. To bring fun to the work atmosphere, companies are incorporating workout rooms and gyms, gaming stations and TVs, and lounge areas where employees can relax or collaborate with their coworkers.

In addition to the perks above, 40 percent of companies are providing their staff with activities outside of the workplace. Of those companies, 80 percent invite the family members of their employees to events like company picnics and sponsored events. Molly mentions in the video that activities that include an employee’s family help create a more welcoming work environment.

For more information on CAI’s Policy and Benefits Survey, please contact a survey team member at 919-878-9222 or 336-668-7746.

Strengthen Your Employer Brand with 4 Tips

Tuesday, May 7th, 2013

employer brandWhat do people think of your organization? When people discuss your business, are the conversations mostly positive? Have you googled your company name to see what comes up? Are your employees quick to offer you the number of their friend or family member when an open position becomes available?

Knowing how your organization is viewed by the public, your industry peers and rivals is important. Having a strong employer brand can make a difference on whether you can secure a great candidate for a vacancy or how a news outlet portrays you to the public. There are several steps you can take to strengthen your employer brand to show that your organization is a stellar place to work. Try the four tips below:

Define How You’re Perceived

In order to strengthen your employer brand, you have to determine how you want your organization to be perceived. Once you decide how you want to represent your organization, make sure your company’s mission statement and values reflect that decision. Your mission statement and values are generally one of the first places interested job seekers visit to learn more about a company. Make sure yours represents your organization well.

Offer Competitive Benefits

Do you want to be known as the company that offers lousy benefits? Or the one that doesn’t understand the importance of work/life balance? In order to become an employer who attracts and secures high-performing talent, you must do your homework and find out what the top benefits candidates are looking for. Competition for top-notch talent is fierce. A strong benefits package that includes a competitive salary as well as non-monetary perks will help you establish your positive employer brand.

Make Smart Hiring Decisions

Don’t just hire a candidate because they have the exact skills and qualifications that your job description requires. Making a smart hiring decision goes beyond matching up a resume to an open position. Adding a new hire to your ranks is important, so it’s critical to ensure they match your culture and will get along with their new coworkers. Failing to do so could result in the new hire leaving in under a year, or worse, one of your loyal employees leaving because they don’t work well with the new employee.

Provide Incredible Customer Service

A surefire way to enhance your employer brand is to improve your customer service. Think of brands like Apple and Zappos. Yes, they sell great products, but they also rely on their customer service teams to help them represent their company. Make sure your employees have all the tools and training they need to offer an exceptional experience to your customers. When your employees are content and engaged, your customers are more likely to be content and engaged as well.

For more ways to improve your employer brand, please call a member of CAI’s Advice and Counsel Team at 919-878-9222 or 336-668-7746.

Photo Source: Robert Scoble

Change Is Inevitable in the Workplace—Are You Prepared?

Thursday, May 2nd, 2013

May 13 quote blog

Many changes are taking place in the business world. The full effects of healthcare reform will soon come to fruition, the competition for top talent still rages on with no plans for stopping, and your employees are looking for better ways to manage both their responsibilities at work and outside of it.

How will you handle the changes that you and your organization face? In order to continue to achieve success at your business, or even just to stay afloat, you must start by creating a plan to address your most pertinent issues.

Review the following articles for help handling the changes that you and other employers will likely see:

Changes in Healthcare Reform

Are you interested in knowing the top healthcare issues of 2013 and how they will affect employers? Our benefits partner, HCW Employee Benefit Services, put together an article highlighting this information. Check it out here: http://blog.capital.org/the-top-10-healthcare-industry-issues-of-2013-how-they-will-affect-employers/.

Compete for Top Talent and Win

Many organizations are struggling to find high-performing talent to fill their open positions. If you aren’t finding the right candidates, you may want to review your hiring process. Finding an excellent employee isn’t something you can attain quickly. Just like other projects you work on, you must have a solid plan for securing top achievers. Here’s an article to help: http://blog.capital.org/smart-recruiting-is-the-key-for-securing-top-talent-4-helpful-tips/.

Dealing with Workplace Change             

Changes in the business world aren’t just affecting employers; they are also affecting your workforce. Understanding the concerns your employees may have about various workplace changes is important for growing your organization with a loyal team.  Review this article to gain strategies for helping your staff deal with company changes:  http://blog.capital.org/help-employees-deal-with-workplace-changes/.

Employees Crave Work/Life Balance

Engaged employees help drive the business results that you want. They are productive team players who strive for excellence. Their work life is important, but so is the life they’ve established outside of your company. Help them manage both well. When you do, you’ll see a number of benefits. Read more about them here: http://blog.capital.org/help-your-employees-achieve-and-maintain-worklife-balance/.

For additional advice or information for dealing with change at your workplace, please call a member of CAI’s Advice and Counsel Team at 919-878-9222 or 336-668-7746.

6 Tips to Help You Think Like a Sales Person to Find Top Talent

Tuesday, April 30th, 2013

CAI’s Director of Member Development, Doug Blizzard, shares advice for finding high-performing talent in today’s video post. He offers a reason as to why employers are struggling to find top talent:

“…it may be because you’re looking in the same places, in the same ways, and at the same time as everybody else.”

He goes on to say that finding top talent today requires a new approach. He suggests learning from the world of sales to benefit your recruiting efforts. Doug details six lessons that you and your organization can borrow from your sales team:

1.       Start Your Process Early

Landing the best account takes time in sales. Don’t be desperate in your hunt for a new team member because you will find desperate job applicants. Doug says to get great people you need to start the recruiting process well in advance of the opening.

 

2.       Put Your Goals in Writing

In the video, Doug shares that the top sales people all have incredibly clear goals and a written plan to accomplish their goals. For recruiting people for your company’s critical roles, he suggests that you create and keep a list of people you want to hire. These are your sales targets.

 

3.       Define Your Ideal Candidate

Doug says the best sales people win more business because they only focus on ideal prospects, so make sure your team has determined who the ideal candidate is in regard to skills and fit. If you’re not sure what to look for, Doug suggests asking your best employees because they will want your team to attract great coworkers.

 

4.       Get Known in Your Industry

In order to get known by high-performing talent, you must get known in your industry. Doug encourages you to find out what associations your prospects belong to, events they attend and social media platforms they participate on. In the video, Doug lays out several ways to be more visible to your prospects, as well as in your industry. He says these efforts will help you identify your top candidates and also draw them to you.

 

5.       Create a Regular Touch System

Once you find your top prospects, Doug says you should implement a touch system of regular contact with them in order to pull them towards your company. He suggests that you mix up the medium you use. The touch system could include emails, phone calls, snail mail, etc. You’ll also want to mix up the content you send, so share information about your industry, specific professions, and other data your prospects will find useful. Be creative and make sure to include information about your organization.

 

6.       Create a Clear Value Proposition

The best sales people sell on value according to Doug. Relating this to employers, he says you must be able to clearly articulate to your prospects why they should come work for you. It can’t only be in terms of pay and benefits, he warns. Work to uncover their needs and match them to your workplace environment. Show them how coming to work for your organization will get them where they need to be.

For additional guidance on recruiting like a sales person, please contact Doug Blizzard at 919-713-5244 or Doug.Blizzard@capital.org.

 

10 Tips to Help Your Organization Win the Competition for Top Talent

Thursday, April 25th, 2013

The following is a guest post from Carol Hacker. Carol is the President and CEO of Hacker & Associates.  She specializes in helping HR professionals and teaching managers, supervisors, team leaders, executives and business owners how to meet the leadership challenge. She’s the author the bestseller, Hiring Top Performers-350 Great Interview Questions For People Who Need People.

Carol Hacker portraitFrom an era of a labor surplus to an era of a labor shortage, when it comes to looking toward the future for talent, the economic crisis has made developing strategies and planning that much more difficult.  Would you agree that there seems to be a massive and devastating shortage of skills and an aggressive war for global talent?  The US workplace has become a playing field of competition for hiring top talent in every industry.

The “brain drain” is making it more difficult to find people who are qualified to do the work that needs to be done.  In addition, you have an extraordinary amount of competition, so you will have to be well prepared to attract and keep the best of the best.  It’s your responsibility as the hiring manager to identify the right people who have more than technical certification, proven abilities, or specific skills.

However, just as important as the required skills, you will need to hire job applicants with the energy, ambition, and potential it takes to meet your specific work standards as well as embrace a people-oriented leadership style and comfortably merge with your existing corporate culture.  Personality counts, as does the ability and willingness to get along with everyone including internal customers and teammates.

The following ideas have proven successful and are worth considering as you build your team of qualified employees:

  •  Focus on company policies and procedures that increase employee retention in the future, such as career development opportunities, bonus compensation, competitive benefits, stock options, flexible schedules, on-going new-hire orientation and mentoring programs.  Today’s generation demands instant gratification.

 

  •  Evaluate your recruitment strategies and hire the right people for the right jobs, rather than trying to fit square pegs into round holes.  The latter approach is guaranteed to set new-hires up for failure.

 

  •  Before you develop a strategic recruitment plan to increase the number of highly qualified and difficult to find job applicants, conduct a self-assessment to compare your recruitment approach to the universe of known recruitment strategies.  This takes time, but once you know what works and what doesn’t you’re ahead of the game.  You will also want to determine what takes the least amount of effort, but still yields good results.

 

  •  Selectively screen resumes and applications.  Many job applicants are using the “dart approach.”  They’re sending out dozens or even hundreds of resumes even when they are not qualified for the position (s) as advertised.  Screening these documents is an enormous waste of your time.

 

  • Do whatever it takes to not only raise the bar, but raise skill levels as well.

 

  •  Do your homework by completing the necessary market research to determine the levels of compensation expected by highly sought-after job applicants.

 

  •  Learn how to efficiently transfer knowledge from senior members of the team to new or entry-level employees.

 

  •  Make use of HR’s abilities and resources in improving the skills and education of your current staff.

 

  • Consider job-sharing and part-time work opportunities for valued employees who cannot work a 40-hour week.

 

  • Develop a partnership with colleges, universities and technical schools in getting students to consider majors where jobs are immediately available upon graduation.

Contact Carol by visiting her website: www.carolahacker.com.

3 Reasons Why You Should Offer Your Employees Paid Sick and Personal Time

Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013

paid sick timeAre you looking for ways to increase employee morale at your organization? Have you been unsuccessful in securing top talent? Do you want to diffuse stressful work situations and decrease turnover?

If your company would reply yes to any of the questions above and you aren’t offering your employees paid time off, you may want to reconsider. Many business owners who aren’t giving their employees paid time off believe that the financial responsibilities are too high in this post-recession economy. However, the benefits from offering paid time off may outweigh the financial responsibility your organization would incur.

Review the three reasons below that show why offering employees paid time off is advantageous to your business:

Attract the Best

High-performing candidates aren’t just looking for any job that’s available. These job seekers are in search of companies that offer several benefits for producing great work. Opportunities for growth, meaningful projects and having their ideas heard will keep a candidate interested in an employer. Offering additional benefits that help them balance their responsibilities outside of work could be a deciding in factor in whether they choose to invest in your company.

Avoid Meltdowns

If you’re not paying employees when they take time off, they may not take time off. And if that’s the case, you should be concerned. Employees may work through illness and personal struggles to ensure their paychecks aren’t short because they don’t have other options. Doing this once in a while may be manageable, but in the long run, your employees will burn out. Several side effects can occur once that happens—increase in sickness, higher levels of stress, irritability, missing deadlines, mediocre work, etc. Your employees may even decide to leave to find an employer that does offer paid time off.

Get Quality Work

Giving your employees a set amount of paid sick and personal time will not only benefit them, but your organization will see the rewards as well. Allowing employees to fully recover from a cold or a rough personal patch will prove invaluable. Having time to rest, forget about work and not worry about money on their days off will help employees save energy for their return to work. Time off will assist them in staying focused to complete important projects, interacting positively with their coworkers and customers, and offering your team fresh ideas.

For additional benefits of employee time off, please call a member of CAI’s Advice and Counsel Team at 919-878-9222 or 336-668-7736.

Photo Source: Brian Reid Furniture

6 Insightful Interview Questions for Finding the Right New Hire

Thursday, April 11th, 2013

right hireCAI’s Advice and Counsel team member Reneé Watkins gets several  phone calls from employers asking for interview questions that will assist them in determining if a job seeker is a good fit for a position. To help organizations ask the right questions, Reneé references information from Jeff Haden’s Inc.com article 14 Revealing Interview Questions . Jeff shares the favorite interview questions of various top executives.

Try using a few of the unique questions from the leaders during your next candidate interview:

(1) “If we’re sitting here a year from now celebrating what a great year it’s been for you in this role, what did we achieve together?” – Randy Garutti, CEO – Shake Shack

The answer to this question reveals whether the candidate has done her research not only on her position, but the company’s mission and values as well.

 (2) “When have you been most satisfied in your life?” – Dick Cross, CEO – Cross Partnership

This question will help you uncover what the job seeker needs to be content with his career path and how your organization can help him achieve job satisfaction.

(3) “If you got hired, loved everything about this job and are paid the salary you asked for, what kind of offer from another company would you consider?” – Ilya Pozen, Founder – Ciplex

Decipher if the candidate is driven by money, responsibility or an enjoyable work atmosphere when you ask this question.

 (4) “Who is your role model and why?” – Clara Shih, CEO – Hearsay Social

Ask this question to learn what the candidate values and the types of character traits he admires.

(5) “Tell me about a recent project or problem that you made better, faster, smarter, more efficient or less expensive.” – Edward Wimmer, Co-Owner – RoadID

Allow your interviewee to brag about herself. This question will help you get insight on the candidate’s work ethic.

 (6) “So, what’s your story?” – Richard Funess, Managing Partner – Finn Partners

Get more information about the candidate and his life experiences by asking him this question.

For more tips to enhance your recruiting and hiring process, please call a member of CAI’s Advice and Counsel at 919-878-9222 or 336-668-7746.

Photo Source: Victor1558

Smart Recruiting is the Key for Securing Top Talent – 4 Helpful Tips

Tuesday, April 9th, 2013

recruiting talentTo achieve a high-performing workplace that creates positive business results, you should place finding top talent at the beginning of your to-do list. Current data reveals that many businesses are struggling to fill positions that have been open for months. Although there are many candidates in the market, employers are finding that these job seekers do not meet the skills or qualifications required to do the job well. Knowing where to find candidates and who you are looking for are important factors in making hiring decisions that are advantageous to your organization.

Employees represent a driving force behind the success or failure of your company. Revamp your recruiting and hiring process by following these four tips:

Create a Talent Pool

Keep your eyes and ears open to ensure you recruit the best and brightest talent for your organization. Whether or not you’re hiring, monitoring the candidates who are interested in seeking opportunity at your organization will be helpful when you’re in a crunch to fill a position. Continuously evaluate your talent pool to have a good idea of who to select for interviews when the time comes.  Keeping an up-to-date archive will help you uncover high-performing talent while avoiding last-minute hiring decisions.

Don’t Skimp on the Job Description

Before you start to pursue suitable candidates, be sure you know what duties and tasks the new hire will be responsible for. Carefully construct your job description to explicitly detail what the future employee will be doing. Making specific job descriptions will weed out the people who really don’t have the experience or desire to fulfill the position.

Devise a Sound Plan

Make your recruiting process more efficient by assigning an interview team to prescreen job seekers to ensure they fit the minimum requirements of your job description. Use your interview team to help you evaluate the interviewees and eventually help you decide who should be offered the opening.

Get Out There

Don’t be passive in your hunt for top talent. Sure you’ll get some good candidates who apply for a position directly on your website or through a job search engine. However, using additional outlets in your hunt will widen your selection of candidates. So be active! Use social media, post an ad in your local newspaper, host networking events, participate in career fairs and ask your employees for referrals.

For additional information on securing high-performing talent at your organization, please call a member of CAI’s Advice and Counsel Team at 919-878-9222 or 336-668-7746.

Photo Source: Victor1558

N.C. Employers Receive Local Data with the 2012/2013 Healthcare Benefits and Cost Survey

Thursday, April 4th, 2013

North Carolina businesses that want to know how their benefits plan design and premium costs match up to other area businesses can quell their curiosity with the N.C. Healthcare Benefits & Cost Survey.  The survey, which is co-developed by CAI and HCW, shares local benchmark data from N.C. employers. Unlike most benchmark surveys that focus on national data, this annual survey offers N.C. employers specific information for managing employee benefits from their local peers.

Data Pool

Nearly 700 organizations from across the state provided data for the survey. More than half of the companies that participated are located in the Research Triangle Region and are small to mid-size employers with less than 1,000 employees nationwide. To capture a good picture of what benefits look like at N.C. companies, the survey includes data from 15 different industries. The top 5 industries represented include:industry table

1)      Professional/Scientific/Technical

2)      Durable Manufacturing

3)      Healthcare and Social Assistance

4)      Finance/Insurance/Real Estate/Rental/Leasing

5)      Non-Durable Manufacturing

 

Key Findings

Survey participants gave plan data for their traditional plan with the highest enrollment or consumer driven health plan with the highest enrollment, or both if applicable. Approximately 72 percent of employers gave data for a traditional plan, 11 percent gave data for a consumer driven plan and 17 percent provided data for both types of plans. Data revealed that most employers have a fully insured plan, while 26 percent have self-funded plans.

Review the key insights for traditional and consumer driven plans below:

Traditional Plans

Traditonal Data

 

  •  21 percent of employers with traditional plans offer a non-rollover Health Reimbursement Account (HRA)
  • 80 percent of employers with traditional plans have a PPO plan ,16 percent have a POS plan and 2 percent have an HMO plan
  • Average health plan premium for single coverage is $464.39 per month
  • Average health plan premium for family coverage is $1,335.03 per month
  • Employer contributes to 83 percent of single-coverage premium costs
  • Employer contributes to 55 percent of family-coverage premium costs

Consumer Driven Health Plans (CDHP)

CDHP plans

 

  • 78 percent of employers with a CDHP offer a Health Reimbursement Account (HRA)
  • 22 percent of employers with a CDHP have a rollover HRA
  • Average health plan premium for single coverage is $401.03 per month
  • Average health plan premium for family coverage is $1,145 per month
  • Employer contributes to 82 percent of single-coverage premium costs
  • Employer contributes to 57 percent of family-coverage premium costs

Please find more information on N.C. healthcare benefits and costs from the local survey here.

The Top 10 Healthcare Industry Issues Of 2013 – How They Will Affect Employers?

Tuesday, March 19th, 2013

The post below is a guest blog from Ellen Tucker who serves as Principal, Health & Welfare Consultant  for CAI’s employee benefits partner, HCW Employee Benefit Services.

healthcare_industry_issues This year it is crucial for employers to have a clear understanding of the timeline of each of the components in healthcare reform and a defined strategy around them. It is evident that, while there is change on the horizon, even more change will occur as employers, insurance carriers and members react to the new options and requirements at hand.

 As employers are considering these issues, PricewaterhouseCoopers has released its annual list of the top 10 issues for the healthcare industry, and the topics include a few items of particular importance for employers. This is the list, followed by the implications for employers:

 1)      States on the frontlines of the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). State officials will decide how to run insurance exchanges, whether to expand Medicaid coverage and what type of insurance market regulation is needed. The biggest challenge facing state governments over the next year is information technology, as most must conduct significant upgrades to existing systems.

 2)      Caring for the nation’s most vulnerable: Dual eligible. Dual eligibles (individuals eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid coverage) are among the nation’s sickest and poorest and often fall through the cracks of two programs not designed to work together. The result is a lack of coordination that often leads to poor quality, inefficiency and avoidable costs. With the ACA set to add 16 million people to Medicaid by 2019, the number of dual eligibles is certain to increase.

 3)      Bigger than benefits: Employers rethink their role in healthcare. Employers have never had a better opportunity to re-examine their long-term role in providing healthcare coverage for their employees. This year will likely be the turning point for how healthcare benefits evolve over the next decade.

 4)      Consumer revolution in health coverage. More Americans will be shopping for their health insurance. As a result, consumers want convenience in how they purchase coverage and transparency in comparing their options. Nearly 40 percent of consumers surveyed by PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Health Research Institute (HRI) said they would purchase insurance at a private insurance company retail store. Consequently, an increase in the use of retail clinics is expected as consumers seek lower cost options for minor ailments.

 5)      Consumer experience hits the pocketbooks of healthcare companies. The Medicare Advantage Star Quality rating system relies on consumer input to generate penalties and bonuses for hospitals and insurers. This could mean a bonus payout of more than $3 billion for insurers and a holdback of $850 million for providers in 2013 based on the impact of the results. Hospitals and health systems are feeling the pinch, as nearly a third of the federal government’s value payment program connects to consumer experience and satisfaction. Moreover, customers support the trend.

 6)      Goodbye cost reduction, hello transformation. With more than 40 percent of consumers postponing care because of costs, hospitals must be competitive. Organizations are making full-scale transformations of their care delivery models, including how and by whom care is delivered. To maintain high quality while implementing sustainable cost reductions, health systems are involving clinicians, staff and patients in redesigning the delivery of care.

 7)      The building blocks of population health management. Population health management shows promise for better health at a lower cost by creating an integrated system of care. Expect to see more partnerships between providers as companies build their population health infrastructure to include shared responsibility for patient outcomes and satisfaction, data collection and analysis, member education and engagement, and a focus on at-risk populations.

 8)      Bring your own device: Convenience at a cost. Only 46 percent of hospitals have a security strategy regulating the use of mobile devices. With more hospitals permitting clinicians to access electronic health records on their personal devices, privacy and security concerns need to be addressed.

 9)      Meeting the new expectations of pharma value. Interest is growing among insurers to partner with pharmaceutical companies to determine unmet medical needs, and improve medication adherence and clinical outcomes. In a recent HRI insurer survey, 43 percent of insurers agreed that they would benefit from a data sharing partnership with pharma companies.

 10)   Medtech industry braces for excise tax impact. The 2.3 percent excise tax on medical devices effective this year could prompt consolidation in a $308 billion global industry consisting mainly of small start-ups with lean product portfolios. Federal bank accounts stand to gain $29.1 billion over the next 10 years from this tax included in the ACA.

 HCW Viewpoint

 Since employers spend a considerable amount of money on healthcare coverage for their employees, health industry issues are of key interest. With the most impactful year regarding healthcare reform implementation quickly approaching, employers are even more eager for information. The decisions facing them are significant, and mistakes could prove costly. 

 Employers have been watching as states decided whether to have a state run exchange, state/federal partnership or a federal run exchange, and whether to implement the Medicaid expansion. For some employers, the Medicaid expansion would provide coverage to additional employees, lowering their possible play or pay penalties effective beginning in 2014. Additionally, employers are determining who they will be required to offer coverage to, whether their benefits are rich enough and whether they meet the affordability requirement. 

 Employers will need to make decisions regarding if they intend to offer coverage to employees in 2014 and beyond, or send their employees to the exchange and pay the penalty. More information regarding the exchanges is emerging, and there may be hundreds of plan designs offered among the four coverage levels. While sending employees to the exchange may sound like the cheapest and easiest option, doing the math generally supports continuing to offer coverage. HCW has developed a “Play or Pay Calculator” that can assist employers in making an objective decision regarding what is otherwise a subjective, reactive one.

 New delivery systems such as accountable care organizations and tiered networks can provide additional options for employers to provide appropriate, cost-effective care over the next few years. These should be part of the overall strategy regarding what actions to take in 2014 and beyond. Staying abreast of health industry issues is critical for employers as decisions are being made. Employers need a custom strategy that is updated with emerging information to allow them to successfully navigate healthcare reform.

 HCW will continue to track these issues throughout 2013, as well as additional emerging information regarding healthcare reform. HCW offers one-hour meetings to walk employers headquartered in North Carolina through a Reform Readiness Plan. To take advantage of this guidance, call 919-403-1986 today and schedule a meeting with on of our experts.